Hasta La Creative!

It’s a slow-down in name only. Launched last night, today’s “Internet Slowdown” is a web initiative aimed at raising awareness about the negative effects of potential Internet rule changes. But consumers don’t have to fret over slowly loading videos or cat pictures.

The protest is manifested by an animated gif representing time lapsing as files load, which is meant to serve as a recognizable symbol of a sluggish Internet experience. That and other images link to tools connecting people via phone with congressional members’ offices to express their opinions on net neutrality, or allowing them to sign a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler.

“We are writing to urge you to implement strong and unambiguous net neutrality rules that protect the internet from discrimination and other practices that will impede its ability to serve our democracy, empower consumers, and fuel economic growth,” begins the letter on the Battle for the Net site.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Apple’s smart watch won’t be released until early next year, but the company is already stocking up its wearable app store.

Facebook, Yahoo, Pinterest and Twitter are among the companies developing apps for Apple Watch, which the company unveiled on Tuesday. While those four companies operate ad-supported businesses, marketers shouldn’t rush to prep campaigns for the companies’ even-smaller-screen apps.

Apple VP Kevin Lynch only showed the ability to receive and act on Facebook notifications, but gave a slightly more in-depth look at a couple other social networks’ wearable apps. Twitter’s Watch app will let people check their timelines and tweet. Pinterest’s Watch app will take things someone has previously pinned on desktop or phone app with a location and show them that pin when they are physically near it as well as directions for how to get to it.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Last year, the 3% Conference held its inaugural event. In various ways, the conference came at the fact that just 3% of creative directors are women. I was there and it was an insightful, educational experience.

Sadly, I can’t make this year’s conference but there is good news to share. The conference may have to change its name because women now make up 11% of all creative directors.

Nine years ago, University of Texas graduate student Kasey Windels wrote a dissertation entitled,”Proportional Representation and Regulatory Focus: The Case for Cohorts among Female Creatives” and a follow up paper entitled “An Exploration into the Representation of Female Creatives in Today’s Advertising Agencies.” As part of that work, she examined the genders of award winners in the 1984, 1994 and 2004 Advertising Annuals of Communication Arts to arrive at the fact that just 3.6% of creative directors are female.

Obviously, it’s been a while since that study and things have changed. A new study has been conducted by The 3% Conference. That study followed the very methodology of the initial study by examining the 2013 Communication Arts Advertising Annual. And that 3.9% has increased by 319% to 11.5%.

Kat Gordon, founder of the 3% Conference, is well aware of the fact that this type of research is far from perfect and far from accurate and she’s advocating for better metrics around the topic that take into consideration that award winners may not be an accurate representation of the actual numbers of women who work in creative. In addition, a look at broader range of titles would help as well. She notes that the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not currently measure Creative Director as a title making it difficult to arrive at a comparable metric in relation to other industries.

From the study:

Women control 73% of consumer purchasing and $20 trillion of the world’s annual consumer spending.

They are more active on social networks and more likely to share a brand’s message with others. Women also represent the majority of early tech adopters4, social gamers5, and are amassing wealth at rates that will culminate in control $22 trillion of US wealth by the end of this decade.

But perhaps the figure that matters most comes from Greenfield Online for Arnold’s Women’s Insight Team, where 91% of women reported they didn’t think that advertisers understood them.

In short, the consumers who brands should want to fall in favor with most report overwhelming dissatisfaction with the way brands speak to them. While good creatives are trained to market anything to anyone, a 97% skew (now recalculated to 89% skew) creates a level of groupthink that represents a group not holding the consumer reins.

The advertising industry does not have a recruitment problem, but a retention
problem when it comes to gender diversity in creative departments. Portfolio schools are
graduating equal (if not greater) number of women than men. Yet these same women “disappear” from the field right around the time they have the appropriate level of experience to be CDs. The 3% Conference tackles the many reasons why: lack of mentorship, lack of visibility of female CDs, award show jury bias, lack of support for motherhood and other factors.

Gordon urges advertising agencies to take a company-wide look at the state of gender diversity to arrive at a benchmark from which benchmarks and goals can be set and from which measurements of progress can be made. She argues the same effort should be applied to ethnic and cultural diversity, long a hot (and, frankly, never solved) topic in the advertising industry.

The next 3% Conference will take place November 3-4 at the Intercontinental Hotel in San Francisco

Microsoft Corp., maker of the Xbox video-game console, is in discussions to acquire Mojang AB, the software company behind the popular game Minecraft, for more than $2 billion, three people with knowledge of the talks said.

Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, is in serious talks with 4-year-old Mojang, said the people, who asked not to be named because the negotiations aren’t public. The deal may be concluded as soon as this week, though next week is more likely, said two people.

A purchase of Mojang would be the biggest deal struck since Satya Nadella took over as Microsoft’s CEO in February, succeeding Steve Ballmer. Mr. Nadella has been shifting the company’s focus more toward Web-based services and cloud computing. It has also renewed a push to woo serious gamers to the Xbox, following a lackluster attempt to turn the system into a device to serve up broader content such as movies and music.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

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É inegável a influência que a internet tem hoje na política. A eleições de 2014 contam com uma série de ferramentas, aplicativos, sites e plataformas para que o eleitorado possa fazer as melhores escolhas, mas não são apenas as iniciativas sérias que têm vez.

O AngryPolitics, por exemplo, é um game aparentemente inocente, mas que convida o jogador a relembrar a importância do seu voto.

Usando a dinâmica do game AngryBirds, é possível escolher um político e derrubar itens empilhados no cenário de uma praia carioca. Dá para reparar que o jogo não foi atualizado depois da entrada de Marina na corrida presidencial, provavelmente porque a brincadeira foi criada com investimentos pessoais dos 3 criativos cariocas envolvidos.

“Amamos morar no Rio, mas chegamos à conclusão de que a cidade tem ficado infernal, trânsito, violência, oportunidades, pelo menos para as camadas mais baixas”, conta ao B9 um dos publicitários que criaram o AngryPolitics. Eles preferem não se identificar, dada a sensibilidade do tema político, mas ressaltam que tudo foi feito sem muitos recursos.

“Óbvio que se tivéssemos verba, seria uma iniciativa mobile friendly, mas foi desta forma que tentamos contribuir com a sociedade ou tentar alertar os eleitores”, defenderam. No rodapé, avisos lembram que os criadores não têm nenhuma associação política, e que qualquer semelhança com a realidade “é mera zoeira”.

Ao final de cada uma das fases, uma mensagem lembra que “política não é um jogo”, e pede ao jogador que não “jogue qualquer político no Rio [de Janeiro]”. Para jogar, basta acessar o site angrypolitics.cc

Outras no B9 sobre eleições

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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Viacom’s proposed acquisition of Channel 5 from Northern & Shell for £450 million has been given the green light by European regulators.